B. Morris Allen's Blog

Yesterday, I published new data on my own submissions, analyzed in part because of the TRUNK anthology project I’m planning, of stories that took a long time to place. I set criteria for submitted stories of at least 20 rejections (10 for novelettes because there are fewer markets) based on my  own experience and observations, using my own data drawn from The Grinder, a free and extremely useful submission tracking tool.

Because Grinder of course has thousands of other users, I asked its owner, ...

2025 is shaping up to be a banner year for me, story publication-wise. I’m on track for a total of twelve plus stories published this year, which easily eclipses my previous total of eight in 2017. Excluding stories published in my own magazine or anthologies, the figures are eleven and six, respectively. So, I’m pretty happy.

At the same time, as part of an upcoming anthology project (TRUNK: stories that took the long way), I took an overview look at my own submission figures, and they’re … dau...

2025 is shaping up to be a banner year for me, story publication-wise. I’m on track for a total of twelve plus stories published this year, which easily eclipses my previous total of eight in 2017. Excluding stories published in my own magazine or anthologies, the figures are eleven and six, respectively. So, I’m pretty happy.

At the same time, as part of an upcoming anthology project (TRUNK: stories that took the long way), I took an overview look at my own submission figures, and they’re … dau...

I had a dream in which Fran Wilde had written a ghost story that I loved, but about which I had completely missed the ghost element. On waking, all I recalled was that the story had taken place entirely through notes passed between the ghost and a living person.

This isn’t exactly that story, but it is built along similar lines. I had fun building up a doomed romance between a shy ghost and a gentle man.

The story came out in In Another Time on 9 June 2025.

Much to my delight, this is my sixth story published this year, and it’s another turn in a different direction. As I recall, the genesis of the story was thinking about were-creatures and the fact that it’s almost always werewolves, with the occasional were-bear, etc. Almost always were-mammals. I thought I’d try a were-dragon. I don’t recall whether the word ‘wyrm’ emerged from that or I got to were-dragon via ‘wyrm’ > ‘were-m’.

The story quickly took a surprising turn with the appearance of ‘d...

My fourth story of the year is “After the Fall”, out in Daikajuzine yesterday. It’s one of four planned stories (two written) about Rezin Miller, a reluctant Attendant for the Observatory, whose job is simply to be present at the decline of a civilization. In this story, he’s tasked with watching the decline of a culture once famous for art and culture, and now reduced to writing advertising jingles. With any luck, I’ll place more of these Barren Witness stories soon and you can read more of Rez...

In Moldova (and neighbouring countries), there’s a tradition that on March 1st, you give people you care about a mărțișor (muhrt-sea-shore) – a little red and white decoration. At the end of March, you tie all your mărțișors (mărțișoare) on a tree. One of the stories behind it is of Spring and Winter meeting in a forest and fighting such that Spring bleeds a little on Winter’s snow. This is a substantially altered retelling of that story. It was published in mid-March 2025 in Hearth Stories‘ fir...

My third story of the year is “NightMantle”, which came out in Foofaraw on 11 March 2025. A 180 degree turn from “Waiting for the Winter”, “NightMantle” is a short, light-hearted piece about superheroes – and supervillains. Mostly supervillains.

It came to me pretty much as is. I had fun with it, and hope you do too.

Planet P Project is the alter ego of Tony Carey. You might know him from a stint on Rainbow’s early albums or from his ’80s hits, “I Won’t Be Home Tonight” or “A Fine, Fine Day”. Planet P was at times an outlet for his political commentary. “Waiting for the Winter” includes the line, “he knows that winter is coming / and he knows he won’t survive”. I liked the bleak tone of it – somewhere between acceptance ...

I’m a little behind in this post, but who knew March would be such a busy month for publication? In fact, 2025 is shaping up to be a good year for me, story-wise.

My second story of the year, “Waiting for the Winter”, came out in Phano at the very beginning of March. Phano is a brand new magazine as of this year (“Waiting” is in the second issue), edited by Amman Sabet. I’ve published stories by Amman in Metaphorosis (“Absurd of a Feather” and “The Ghosts of Daughters Possible”, so it’s only fai...